“These very competitive teams address an exciting range of unmet medical needs with their new technologies,” said Dr Mercedes Balcells-Camps, Program Chair of IDEA² Global and a Principal Research Scientist at MIT. “And we’re thrilled that this year to welcome our first teams from Ireland and Tunisia, so we have teams from four continents in this cohort.”

COVERGEL Project—A family of medical devices for gastrointestinal endoscopy to perform bioactive treatments and prevent adverse events after endoscopy

“PEPSTOB” (Peptide to stop obesity)—Developing a medication to reduce lipid accumulation in tissues and organs to treat conditions like obesity and heptatic steatosis, with an additional cosmetic application

Paciena Prosthesis—Developing a new prosthesis to be used as an intraneovaginal mold after neovagina surgery

Creating a Patient-Centered Smartphone or Computer Application for Cirrhosis Management—A new system to manage outpatient care and reduce the need for hospital readmission after treatment

Translational Neuroscience Center—A new hospital-based program to improve the efficiency of translation of novel ideas into practical tools for the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of brain disorders

Integrating the tools of genomics and neuroscience to reveal causes of neuropsychiatric disorders—A new research initiative to transform psychiatric drug discovery, addressing the growing need to treat mental illnesses

AugGi—Developing a mobile app to help patients with digestive disorders take objective measures of their stool characteristics

The teams were selected competitively based on their potential for impact and readiness for additional support. Through group innovation training and individualized mentorship and advising, the teams will refine their research and development strategy to heighten the opportunity to healthcare impact.

The teams will meet at MIT in early June for an initial workshop to sharpen the focus on the medical need they intend to address. They will then be matched with project mentors and subject and technology experts to help them develop their project over the summer. In October, the teams will meet again in a workshop to refine their project definition. Finally, in December they will gather to make their final pitches to a panel of judges, who will name the best projects.

Team members look forward to the training and guidance they will get to advance their projects. Florencio Gonzalez Marquez, member of Open Retinoscope, said “We believe that our idea could mean a significant improvement in the medical care provided to ophthalmological patients. We hope IDEA² will show us the strengths and weaknesses of our project, advise us on how to improve it, and give us tools to [promote it to] companies in the sector that might be interested in the commercializing the device.”

About IDEA² Global
IDEA² Global provides mentoring and connections to biomedical innovators around the world to develop their project ideas and to provide the expertise to realize them. It is especially valuable for trainees, early-stage professionals, and those who have few opportunities in their normal work to participate in innovation projects. More at http://Idea2.mitlinq.org

About MIT linQ
MIT linQ is an initiative based in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Institute for Medical Engineering and Sciences (MIT IMES) to develop a new paradigm for biomedical technology innovation. MIT linQ, part of the MIT Innovation Initiative, unifies a portfolio of international innovation programs focused on improving healthcare through need-driven, interdisciplinary research and training. For more information, visit http://mitlinq.org